I have a special visitor.

I love showing people around my garden.  It is my pride and joy.  Although sometimes it is more like a petulant child who refuses to brush his hair before going out in public.  There is always a shirt tail to tuck in and laces to do up.  Normally when people say they are coming around I end up doing some frenzied panic weeding so my garden doesn’t bring shame to us both.

Then there is the friend who comes round and knows me well.  There is comfort in making yourself vulnerable by showing them how things actually are and being ok with it. You can say without fear of judgement:  “If you look past the weeds you can see the kohlrabi – I’ll probably weed it tomorrow or the day after, if it doesn’t stop raining.”  This is the friend who goes home with a couple of marrows and a cabbage with holes in it and doesn’t mind at all.

Spending time with long lost kiwi cousins in the carrot patch

Gardenerd getting to know the carrots – don’t tell him we’re gonna eat these relatives of his.

And then there is the visitor who is a very large, very cuddly and very well-travelled carrot.  This is the kind of visitor I don’t mind having in the garden because we can take selfies at just the right angle so we don’t see the overgrown bits.  His holiday snaps that get put up on the internet to show the folks back home are the typical tourist ones.  It just wouldn’t do to show the seedy side of things.  You don’t go to Rome and take photos of the garbage dump, you take photos of the Colosseum.

Gardenerd in the garden tour bus admiring the sweetcorn

Bean there, done that on the garden tour

Not saying my garden is a great landmark, but it is certainly not insignificant to me.  It is where I find my peace, exercise, food, and green thumb experience and I love to share all that it has to offer.  So I have opened my garden to my plush visitor so together we can share the joys that can be found in the garden. Not just my garden but any garden and this carrot has seen a few in his travels.

Gardenerd in the pumpkin patch

“Hey – you’ve got some zucchini in here ready to pick” “I know – there are always zucchini in there ready to pick”

I’d like to introduce you to Gardenerd and he has been around. He belongs to a wonderful gardener in America called Christy Wilhelmi and she as a wonderful blog over on www.gardenerd.com.  Mr Gardenerd left his Californian home ten months ago and you can read about where he came from >HERE<.  He has been as far as Vancouver and as wide as Wellington (NZ) and now he is with me.

“wow Sarah the Gardener, that’s a large pepper!”

Carrots and basil go so well together

I have great plans for our time together.  I’m going to show him around my garden, and maybe even give him a job or two.  We may even venture beyond the garden and check out some proper sites.  We are going to have such a fab time.  You can follow our journey on my Facebook page Sarah the Gardener or on Twitter or by looking up the hashtag #wheresgardenerd.

“wow Sarah the Gardener, that’s a large pepper!”

“Gosh it’s hot outside – let’s get these holiday snaps online so my family back in California can see them”

Come again soon – the grass has been mowed and the garden is flourishing.

Sarah the Gardener  : o )

NB: You can click on the photos for a fun caption.  : o)